(Headline USA) Twelve former FBI agents fired after kneeling during a 2020 Black Lives Matter protest in Washington sued Monday to get their jobs back, saying their action had been intended to de-escalate a volatile situation and was not meant as a political gesture.
The agents say in their lawsuit that they were fired in September by Director Kash Patel because they were perceived as not being politically affiliated with President Donald Trump. But they say their decision to take a knee on June 4, 2020, days after the death of George Floyd has been misinterpreted as political expression.
The fired agents say they knelt as a crowd-control tactic. They wanted to prevent another Boston Massacre, they say. https://t.co/xx54B3EA4c pic.twitter.com/mtMicXSAoC
— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) December 8, 2025
The lawsuit says the agents were assigned to patrol the nation’s capital during a period of civil unrest prompted by Floyd’s death. Lacking protective gear or extensive training in crowd control, the agents became outnumbered by hostile crowds they encountered and decided to kneel to the ground in hopes of defusing the tension, the lawsuit said. The tactic worked, the lawsuit asserts — the crowds dispersed, no shots were fired and the agents “saved American lives” that day.
“Plaintiffs were performing their duties as FBI Special Agents, employing reasonable de-escalation to prevent a potentially deadly confrontation with American citizens: a Washington Massacre that could have rivaled the Boston Massacre in 1770,” the lawsuit says.
The FBI declined to comment Monday.
The photos of the kneeling agents—particularly one of a portly woman— took the internet by storm, both for the ridiculous imagery, and the fact that the bureau was playing politics at a time when many of the country’s major cities were overrun by crime and violent demonstrators.
Strength, endurance, and resilience weren’t necessary for Sarah Linden https://t.co/M9TMVHlnR7 pic.twitter.com/g83cRxefIG
— Steve Friend (@RealStevefriend) May 17, 2025
Photos did not indicate that the agents were in any danger, or that the crowd was threatening them.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
